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The Thin Man
by Dashiell Hammett
- Used
- Hardcover
- first
- Condition
- VG+
- Seller
-
Germantown, New York, United States
Payment Methods Accepted
About This Item
The Thin Man by Dashiell Hammett
Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 1934. First edition. [viii], 259 pp. Bound in publisher's sightly greenish tan cloth with red topstain, blue mask and red designs. First state of text with "seep" for the word "sleep" on page 209. In excellent unmarked condition, straight and square, w/o the jacket. The author's last novel, an enjoyable mystery dedicated to his wife, playwright Lillian Hellman. It was also the basis for the classic movie with William Powell and Myrna Loy.
Synopsis
Dashiell Samuel Hammett was born in St. Mary’s County. He grew up in Philadelphia and Baltimore. Hammett left school at the age of fourteen and held several kinds of jobs thereafter—messenger boy, newsboy, clerk, operator, and stevedore, finally becoming an operative for Pinkerton’s Detective Agency. Sleuthing suited young Hammett, but World War I intervened, interrupting his work and injuring his health. When Sergeant Hammett was discharged from the last of several hospitals, he resumed detective work. He soon turned to writing, and in the late 1920s Hammett became the unquestioned master of detective-story fiction in America. In The Maltese Falcon (1930) he first introduced his famous private eye, Sam Spade. The Thin Man (1932) offered another immortal sleuth, Nick Charles. Red Harvest (1929), The Dain Curse (1929), and The Glass Key (1931) are among his most successful novels. During World War II, Hammett again served as sergeant in the Army, this time for more than two years, most of which he spent in the Aleutians. Hammett’s later life was marked in part by ill health, alcoholism, a period of imprisonment related to his alleged membership in the Communist Party, and by his long-time companion, the author Lillian Hellman, with whom he had a very volatile relationship. His attempt at autobiographical fiction survives in the story “Tulip,” which is contained in the posthumous collection The Big Knockover (1966, edited by Lillian Hellman). Another volume of his stories, The Continental Op (1974, edited by Stephen Marcus), introduced the final Hammett character: the “Op,” a nameless detective (or “operative”) who displays little of his personality, making him a classic tough guy in the hard-boiled mold—a bit like Hammett himself.
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Details
- Bookseller
- Camphor Bookstore
(US)
- Bookseller's Inventory #
- Biblio1133
- Title
- The Thin Man
- Author
- Dashiell Hammett
- Book Condition
- Used - VG+
- Quantity Available
- 1
- Binding
- Hardcover
- Publisher
- Alfred A. Knopf
- Place of Publication
- New York
- Date Published
- 1934
- Weight
- 0.00 lbs
- Keywords
- The Thin Man, blacklisted writers, Dashiell Hammett, noir, mysteries, Lillian Hellman, Myrna Loy, Hollywood, classic movies, detectives, pulp fiction,
Terms of Sale
Camphor Bookstore
30 day return guarantee, with full refund including original shipping costs for up to 30 days after delivery if an item arrives damaged or not as described.
About the Seller
Camphor Bookstore
Biblio member since 2016
Germantown, New York
About Camphor Bookstore
First editions, vintage and rare books, some ephemera.
Glossary
Some terminology that may be used in this description includes:
- First State
- used in book collecting to refer to a book from the earliest run of a first edition, generally distinguished by a change in some...
- Cloth
- "Cloth-bound" generally refers to a hardcover book with cloth covering the outside of the book covers. The cloth is stretched...
- Jacket
- Sometimes used as another term for dust jacket, a protective and often decorative wrapper, usually made of paper which wraps...
- New
- A new book is a book previously not circulated to a buyer. Although a new book is typically free of any faults or defects, "new"...
- First Edition
- In book collecting, the first edition is the earliest published form of a book. A book may have more than one first edition in...
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